SERDANG, Dec 18 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) made history with the successful implantation of the country’s first Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) within the public healthcare system at Sultan Idris Shah Hospital (HSIS) here on December 10.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the procedure marked the first time such an implantation was performed at an MOH facility.
It involved the use of the HeartMate 3 device and was carried out by a local multidisciplinary clinical team.
The procedure was performed on a 57-year-old male patient suffering from end-stage heart failure.
“The patient selected was one who truly required the device to save his life,” he said at a press conference here today.
Dzulkefly said that the surgery took about five hours and was completed smoothly without complications.
The patient was successfully weaned off all inotropic support and is currently undergoing physiotherapy.
He added that the cost of the device reached about RM680,000, while the total cost of the procedure amounted to about RM800,000.
“Although it is expensive, this LVAD is still regarded by the cardiology community as one of the most cost-effective treatment options,” he said.
However, Dzulkefly said, any decision to expand the use of LVAD as a national policy would depend on the outcome of further analyses and assessments of the patient’s quality of life following the procedure.
Meanwhile, commenting on the successful implantation, cardiologist Dr K. Sethujanatran said the patient was selected as he was in the most critical stage of heart failure after almost all other treatment options had failed.
“The patient was in the final stage, with nearly all other treatments exhausted,” he said, adding that the patient had been treated in the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) for almost three months before being chosen to undergo the implantation. — Bernama
